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Dec. 9, 2009

For more than six months now, AT&T's mobile network slow speeds and sluggish connections has come under a good deal of criticism, especially from unhappy iPhone users.

Now AT&T has launched an iPhone application that allows its users to provide live feedback on its network performance (or lack thereof).

Some wireless industry observers see this as a desperate move on the part of the mobile service carrier. Others disagree.

Called 'Mark the Spot' the app lets customers tell AT&T about network issues and problems with as little as two button clicks. The app automatically notes the location, time of day and type of device used, and sends that information back to AT&T's network admins.

AT&T's new "Mark the Spot" app was developed in August but has only been used by AT&T employees for the past few weeks. AT&T plans to launch versions of the app for additional smartphone devices in January and February.

AT&T says its smartphone network traffic has increased about 5,000 percent over the past three years.

The growth has been a heavy burden on AT&T's network, prompting the wireless carrier to invest about $17 billion this year alone to help improve its network performance and reduce latency.

"With 'Mark the Spot', we're applying the power of crowd sourcing to our ongoing efforts to enhance and expand our network," said AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan in a statement.

"Overall feedback from our users via AT&T Mark the Spot, combined with data from more than 964,000 miles of drive testing conducted by an independent third-party source, will enable us to most quickly and effectively identify trends and maximize the impact of our ongoing network investment. We encourage all AT&T customers to freely download and use the app," added Donovan.

The wireless carrier added about 2,000 new mobile antenna sites and 100,000 new backhaul connections to its network in 2009 alone and now says it will have HSPA 7.2 running in six markets by Dec. 31.

The mobile communications industry as a whole is bracing for an explosion in mobile data traffic. Strategy Analytics estimates mobile handsets and smartphones will generate almost 2.2 exabytes of data traffic by 2013, the bulk of which will come from Web browsing.

"Overall management of data traffic load is the biggest current priority for mobile operators, with the compression of Internet and video content to mobile handsets an important element in any strategy," said analyst Phil Kendall in a report.

"Mobile service providers need to use pricing in order to guide traffic away from peak times and to get more creative with the use of WiFi, which could offload some smartphone data," added Kendall.

Nationally, AT&T has a Wi-Fi network comprised of more than 20,000 hot spots across all U.S. 50 states.

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Source: AT&T.